The Magazine of Potter College at Western Kentucky University Spring 2013 | Vol
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Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® PCAL Publications Potter College of Arts & Letters Spring 2013 Arts & Letters: The aM gazine of Potter College at Western Kentucky University David Lee, Dean Western Kentucky University, [email protected] Kelly Scott, Managing Editor Western Kentucky University, [email protected] Potter College of Arts & Letters, Western Kentucky University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/pcal_pubs Part of the Fine Arts Commons, History Commons, Photography Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lee, Dean, David; Scott, Managing Editor, Kelly; and Potter College of Arts & Letters, Western Kentucky University, "Arts & Letters: The aM gazine of Potter College at Western Kentucky University" (2013). PCAL Publications. Paper 4. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/pcal_pubs/4 This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in PCAL Publications by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Spring 2013 Conflict and Compromise The American Political Experience President Barack Obama disembarks Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in the early morning hours of Thursday, January 12, 2012, upon returning from in Chicago, Ill. on a campaign fundraising trip. Featured in the New York Times. Photo by Luke Sharett, ‘13 http://www.lukesphoto.com/ • http://sharrett.blogspot.com/ If you are interested in featuring your work in Arts & Letters, please send an image of the artwork, a brief description, and your contact information to [email protected]. The Arts & Letters Magazine Council will choose from the entries. Welcome to our spring issue of Arts & Tim Broekema, the show highlights the pioneering Letters! Politics and public affairs have been work of Civil War photographers, with a particular the order of the day over the last several months, emphasis on photographs of the aftermath of the so in this issue we’d like to show you how Potter Battle of Antietam, perhaps the bloodiest single College is engaged in public discourse. Some of day in American history. Robert Dietle, head of that involvement focuses on politics, and Saundra the History Department, has provided concise Ardrey, head of the Political Science Department, will and informative captions for the images Tim has introduce you to the roles our students and faculty selected. All in all, Tim and Robert have given us played in the electoral process during the recent a remarkable window on the defining event of our Presidential campaign. In keeping with a political history. theme, our Alumni Spotlight focuses on cartoonist Not everything in Potter College is Whitey Sanders, who has spent a lifetime skewering happening close to home, however. The College our political leaders with his art and his wit. also continues to be part of the university’s Not all public discourse is political, and our “international reach,” and this issue lets you tag faculty and students are also deeply involved in the along on three remarkable international trips to cultural life of this region. Barren County native Britain, Cuba, and Ghana, where Potter College and English Department faculty member Wes Berry faculty and students studied politics, literature, talks about how our students move from the political and musical theatre. You’ll be intrigued by what to the personal and from a global view to local they’ve learned! concerns. It’s been an eventful several months in Potter This issue will also give you a glimpse of a College, and I think you’ll enjoy this issue of Arts tremendous gallery show of Civil War photographs & Letters! that were displayed in Mass Media & Technology Hall. Curated by Photojournalism faculty member DAVID D. LEE, Dean Potter College of Arts & Letters Photographed in the new Academic Commons, FAC 166 Contents The Magazine of Potter College at Western Kentucky University Spring 2013 | Vol. 4 | No. 1 Message from the Dean . Left David Lee MANAGING EDITOR Kelly Scott Communications Coordinator Potter College of Arts & Letters The Election Season COPY EDITORS Experiencing the Democratic Process First Hand . Stacey Biggs Karen Schneider 4 Chief Marketing Officer Emeritus Professor Saundra Ardrey Office of Public Affairs Department of English ART DIRECTOR Tom Meacham Photographs of a Nation Divided . 8 DESIGNERS Mac McKerral Marcus Dukes Moriah Dixon Scott French Davide Fellini Carmen Herrera Stephen Gray Stefan Anderson Bret Heffner The Real Work: PHOTOGRAPHERS Catalyzing Civic Engagement . Clinton Lewis 14 Bryan Lemon Wes Berry WRITERS Jo-Ann Huff Albers Mac McKerral Saundra Ardrey Walter Rutledge Wes Berry Ed Yager Alumni Spotlight Jordan Campbell Bill “Whitey” Sanders . 18 MAGAZINE ADVISORY COUNCIL Jo-Ann Huff Albers Brent Bjorkman Jennifer Markin Jennifer Bryant Julie Pride Luke Jean Jennifer Mize Smith Liza Kelly London School of Economics . 20 Like Potter College on Facebook! Edward Yager Read Arts & Letters online www.wku.edu/pcal/magazine Look for this application at the App Store! Study Abroad About the Cover Unable to capture the movement of battle, WKU in Cuba . 22 photographers who accompanied the armies soon developed an outdoor version of the studio Walker Rutledge photograph. These carefully arranged tableaux of officers, men, and equipment were photographed by James Gibson in the spring of 1862 during the Studying Musical Theatre in Ghana . 25 Army of the Potomac’s Peninsular Campaign. Jordan Campbell Inside Cover Photo Photo by Luke Sharrett Arts & Letters is published semiannually for members Arts & Letters Departments of the public interested in the Potter College of Arts & Letters at Western Kentucky University. It is produced by News from PCAL Departments . 28 the Potter College Dean’s Office and the WKU Division of Public Affairs. Western Kentucky University 1906 College Heights Blvd. Bowling Green, KY 42101-1026 International Research Notes . 32 ARTS & LETTERS 3 SPRING 2013 Western Kentucky University is an equal opportunity institution of higher education and upon request provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. www.wku.edu/eoo. © Western Kentucky University 2013 Printing paid for from state funds, KRS 57.375 CTIO LE N E SEASON Experiencing the Democratic Process First Hand BY DR. SAUNDRA ARDREY ARTS & LETTERS 4 SPRING 2013 Election 2012 was a time of political and social turmoil that pitted Republicans against Democrats, conservatives against liberals; it may have been a rollicking, helter skelter time for the American people, but for the Department of Political Science it was magical. This election year, as during every presidential election, students of the political process merged theory with practical application. While the political science curriculum introduces students to such concepts as participation and democratic theory, in an election year they get to experience those concepts at work. Student registering for the first time celebrates with Dr. Gary Ransdell and Big Red. The election cycle began for WKU students at the Republican and Democratic conventions in August. Partnering with the Warren County Republican Party, But by far the biggest and most significant event Political Science professor Scott Lasley escorted was September 25, National Voter Registration Day. In a group of students to Tampa, Florida, where 2008, six million Americans told the U.S. Census that they survived both political and hurricane-force they did not vote because they did not know how to winds. WKU students were there as Clint Eastwood register or they missed their state’s voter registration scolded the empty chair and as Ann Romney shared deadline. Students in the Political Science Senior the qualities she most admired in her husband. Seminar set out to make sure no student was left out of Department chair Saundra Curry Ardrey took students the 2012 election. With the help of Spirit Masters, Big to Charlotte, N.C., for the re-nomination of President Red and President Gary Ransdell, they registered over Obama. Political Science student Chelsea Cornett 1800 students. interned with the DNC and received unprecedented Presidential transitions in the United States are access to the Convention floor. noted for the relative ease with which the transfer of The Department, working with the Political executive power and leadership is accomplished. We Engagement Project, ignited student participation witness a radical shift in focus – from campaigning with the theme “What’s your tag?” We partnered with to governing by an incoming administration. As Housing and Residence Life, Student Government William Galston and Elaine Kamarck point out in “The Association, the Office of Diversity Programs, and Transition: Reasserting Presidential Leadership,” “The academic units to engage students from across peaceful transfer of power from one President to the the campus community in the excitement of the next is an enduring and gripping drama of American campaign season. The library presented exhibits democracy.” (See Mandate for Change, ed. Will Marshall on the Constitution and on American presidential and Martin Schram). elections. The School of Journalism and Broadcasting, Every four years the department of political science the Department of Political Science, and the Institute offers an opportunity to experience that drama. On for Citizenship and Social Responsibility presented a January 19, led by political science professors Saundra